Sturgeon admits she ‘doesn’t know’ when indyref2 will happen

● First Minister suggests that she would back a second referendum on the EU

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has admitted she does not know when she will call another referendum on Scottish independence. She made the admission in a new interview published today, having previously suggested a vote was still likely before 2021. Earlier yesterday, the First Minister paid a visit to the Edinburgh Young Carers Project to announce a new young carer grant worth £300 a year.

Nicola Sturgeon has admitted that she does not know when she will call another referendum on Scottish independence.

The First Minister shelved plans for a second independence referendum after her party suffered a setback at the general election, but had said it was likely that a vote would still take place before 2021.

Her admission was made in an interview with the New Statesman that also saw her suggest that she could support another referendum on EU withdrawal.

Asked whether the timescale of an independence referendum remained roughly the same she told the New Statesman: “The honest answer to that is: I don’t know”.

She maintained it was “deeply wrong” for Scotland to be taken out of the EU without the ability to make its own decision, but she indicated that she had yet to decide when to hold another vote and recognised people were not ready for a second plebiscite.

“I recognise, as well – and it’s obviously something I have reflected on – that understandably people feel very uncertain about everything just now, partly because the past few years have been one big decision after another,” Ms Sturgeon said.

“That’s why I said before recess that I will not consider any further the question of a second referendum at this stage. I’m saying, OK, people are not ready to decide we will do that, so we have to come back when things are clearer and decide whether we want to do it and in what timescale.”

Her remarks represent a change of stance from her original demand for a referendum between autumn next year and spring 2019, in the wake of the Brexit vote.

Although welcomed by ardent independence supporters, her call for another referendum played badly with the Scottish electorate at large and was blamed for the SNP losing 21 seats in the June general election.

Following the election, Ms Sturgeon “reset” her position in the summer saying she would delay a referendum bill until the end of the Brexit talks towards the end of next year. But at the time she added that it was “still likely” that indyref2 would be held before the 2021 Scottish election.

In her interview, Ms Sturgeon described Brexit as a “complete and utter car crash – an unfolding disaster” and signalled that she may support a second referendum on the terms of EU withdrawal.

She contrasted the Scottish independence referendum campaign of 2014 when at least the Scottish Government published its independence blueprint in its White Paper with the lack of detail presented by the Leave side in the EU vote.

“I think it probably gets more and more difficult to resist it [another EU referendum],” she said. “I know people try to draw lots of analogies [between the EU and independence referendums], and there are some, but whatever you thought of the White Paper, it was there and it was a fairly detailed proposition.

“One of the beautiful things about the independence referendum was the extent to which ordinary folk became experts on really technical, big, macroeconomic positions. Standing on a street corner on a Friday morning, an ordinary working-class elderly gentleman was talking to me in great detail about lender of last resort and how that would work.”

is a woman who sits in meetings where it’s just the two of you and reads from a script,” Ms Sturgeon said.

“I found it very frustrating because David Cameron, whose politics and mine are very far apart, always managed to have a personal rapport. You could sit with David and have a fairly frank discussion, agree the things you could agree on and accept you disagree on everything else, and have a bit of banter as well.

“I remember just after May came back from America when she’d held Trump’s hand, she’d also been to Turkey and somewhere else. This was the Monday morning. We sit down, it’s literally just the two of us, and I say, ‘You must be knackered.’ She said, ‘No! I’m fine!’ And it was as if I’d insulted her. It was just impossible to get any human connection.”

Ms Sturgeon added that the Prime Minister should not have “built a campaign” entirely round her own personality when “you know your personality’s not capable of carrying a campaign... Even if you can’t see that, somebody somewhere around you should have.” Ms Sturgeon said it was hard not to feel “some personal sympathy” for Mrs May.